Monthly Archives: December 2012

I just changed the PAGE on the blog titled PREVIOUS PROGRAMS 2002 – 2011 to PREVIOUS PROGRAMS 2002 – 2012 to reflect our historical view of genealogy programs presented at our library to now include 2012 (even though we still have one more in December 2012).

You will find “Pages” to this blog on the top of the homepage of the blog. You will see pages titled “About”, “2013 Programs”, “Previous Programs 2002 – 2012″, “Favorite Links”, “Genealogy Program Flyer”.

Just look for it at the top of the blog.

Here is a direct link to the newly updated history of our genealogy programs presented at our library covering 2002 to 2012:

Maybe you remember a program or speaker we had at one time. Use this page to refresh your memory. The programs are presented in order from 2012 back to 2002. The programs within each year are in January through December month order.

I just want to let all of you know that I have created a new “page” on the blog that is at the top of the first page you see when you visit the blog.

The title of the page is “2013 Programs”. You will find a list of the schedule of our upcoming genealogy programs for 2013 at our Central Library. These programs always occur on the 2nd Tuesday evening of each month starting at 7:30 PM. Doors to the room open by 7:00 PM.

Take a look at the variety of topics and speakers we have scheduled for 2013 to see which ones are of special interest to you. Also note the quarterly “breakout” groups we have when we do not have a speaker scheduled. Mark your calendars for 2013 for these programs.

You can also get directly to this schedule of our programs for 2013 from right within this post at:

I just received a program notice from the Northwest Suburban Council of Genealogists indicating that their next genealogy program is scheduled for Saturday morning, January 5, 2013 at 10:00 AM.

The society will be meeting on Saturday, January 5, 2013 at 10:00 AM at the Arlington Heights Senior Center at 1801 W. Central Rd. in Arlington Heights, IL.

Please be sure to view the link below that will get you to the program description material supplied to me by the society.

The speaker for the morning program will be Teresa S. McMillin. The speaker will present a program titled “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Hanover Military Records“.

Researchers can arrive as early as 9:00 AM to have informal conversations and share knowledge and seek research advice.

Please note that the 9:00 AM start for the “help table” is now 30 minutes earlier than it has been at the society program. So now, you will have a full hour in advance of the regular program to sit at a table and seek some genealogical research help. The “help table” used to start at 9:30 AM. Take advantage of the full hour of help being offered in advance of the regularly scheduled program that will start at 10:00 AM.

Please take a look at the full PDF announcement of the program by going to:

Take a look at it if you choose to browse through it in advance of our Genealogy Program that will take place on Tuesday evening, December 11, 2012 at 7:30 PM at our main library location at 130 S. Roselle Road in Schaumburg, IL.

You can read the handouts online or you can save them as a PDF file to your own computer for reading offline and more detailed searching through all of the contents.

You will also note that I have started “highlighting” in this uploaded PDF key points within the handout by using the “yellow highlighting” function within Microsoft Word. This will allow your eyes to visually see key points within the handouts that I want to emphasize. I hope you will enjoy being able to more easily see these key points within the set of handouts through this highlighting technique. I plan on highlighting within the Handout file on a going forward basis.

Please note that the Handouts PDF file has embedded Bookmarks to allow you to move to the handouts of interest to you quickly without having to scroll through the entire document. Just open the Bookmark window in the PDF file and select the handout of interest for quick access.

You can also get to the handouts of interest to you quickly via the Table of Contents at the beginning of the document. You will find hyperlinks that will get you directly to the handout of interest to you from the Table of Contents.

Please note that you can access directly any and all URL Links that you find within the Handouts PDF. You can get directly to the website being mentioned from within the handout being mentioned.

Take a look at it if you choose to browse through it in advance of our Genealogy Program that will take place on Tuesday evening, December 11, 2012 at 7:30 PM at our main library location at 130 S. Roselle Road in Schaumburg, IL.

You can read the newsletter online or you can save it as a PDF file to your own computer for reading offline and more detailed searching through all of the contents.

Please note that the Newsletter has Bookmarks and Hyperlinks within the document to make for fast navigation from within the Table of Contents. You can quickly get to the spots that interest you from the Table of Contents.

It is that time once again when we will be having another Genealogy Program at the central location of the Schaumburg Township District Library on Tuesday evening, December 11, 2012 at 7:30 PM. We are located at 130 S. Roselle Road in Schaumburg, IL.

There is no pre-registration required in order to attend the program. There is no fee charged to attend. Anyone can attend this program. You do not have to be a library card holder with the Schaumburg Township District Library in order to attend.

Here is a summary of the information about the program:

The Genealogy program will be held on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 7:30 PM in the 2nd floor Classroom. There is no formal presentation for this gathering. Instead, we will have our breakout group discussions so participants can work within a small group of people having specific interests in a common genealogical topic. The object is to share information and experience on this topic among those in the breakout group.We are planning on having the same breakout groups we had in our previous breakout groups based on various nationalities. These will be Polish, Czech, German, Irish, British, Italian, Scandinavian, as well as Colonial American.

There will also be a Beginners Group and a “new” breakout group at which those that have actually created a Family History Book or Report can share with others at the table how they went about doing that. In order to make this new table successful I am in need of those that have created a Family History Book to attend this program and be willing to share their successes with others in a small group setting. We are going to give this new “table” a try and see if we can make it work over time.

A laptop computer connected to our projector will also be available in the room to use by those in attendance. Participants are also encouraged to bring in their own lap top or net book to connect wirelessly to the library’s WiFi Network. This will allow the user to share information with other participants in areas of genealogical research.

Some of the above mentioned groups may be eliminated if there are not enough participants in any one group to make it beneficial. Some groups that have not been identified may be added. The doors to the room will open at approximately 7 PM so participants can pick up the handouts, review books and journals and interact with other participants. Tony Kierna, the STDL genealogist, will start the program at 7:30. Introductions of new participants will occur as well as a brief review of handouts and genealogical matters. It is expected that the breakout groups will form at around 7:45-8:00 PM. We will end the session by 9:30 PM.For further information contact Tony Kierna at 847-923-3390.

This is just a reminder to make you aware of a growing resource we are adding to our DVD collection on the 1st floor of our library.

You may be aware if you have attended any of our library’s monthly genealogy programs that when we have a speaker that you often see me in the back of the room videotaping the speaker’s program. We just started doing this in February 2012.

A big thank you to all of the speakers we have had in 2012 that have allowed me to videotape the program in order to create a DVD and add that into our DVD collection. The speaker does not have to allow me to videotape the program. So far, all of the speakers for 2012 have given me permission to videotape the program!! This means that you can check out the DVD from our collection to view at home if you missed the program or if the topic is one that interests you.

You can find these DVDs in our collection by searching our library catalog using the search words “genealogy program”. You will find these videotaped programs in the list of hits returned from the search. If you click on the title of the returned hit and then click on the link for “catalog record”, you will see more details for the program such as the date the program was recorded, the length in time of the recorded program, and my name “Anthony H. Kierna” should be shown as the one that videotaped the program.

So far we have 5 programs recorded that are available for you to check out from our library for viewing at home on DVD. One additional recorded program from November 13, 2012 is in the “pipeline” being cataloged.

Here is a summary of what is in our library to check out in case you missed the program and would like to see it:

“Using Railroad Records in Your Family History Research” by Craig Pfannkuche. Recorded on February 14, 2012. 1 Hour 13 Mins. Call number is DVD 929.1072 USI.

“Making Sense of the English Census” by Paul Milner. Recorded on April 10, 2012. 1 Hour 12 Mins. Call number is DVD 929.3 MIL.

“Military Records” by Kathryn Barrett. Recorded on May 8, 2012. 1 Hour 22 Mins. Call number is DVD 929.3 MIL.

“Hiring A Professional Genealogist” by Jeanne Larzalere Bloom. Recorded on July 10, 2012. 1 Hour 44 Mins. Call number is DVD 929.1072 HIR.

“Organize and Share Your Family History” by Steve Szabados. Recorded on October 9, 2012. 1 Hour 20 Mins. Call number is DVD 929.20973 ORG.

So if you routinely attend our monthly genealogy program but happened to miss one this year, chances are good it is one in the list above. You can now check it out for an “encore” presentation in your own home.

Or if the title just sounds like a good one even if you have never attended our program, then by all means it is now available for you to check it out and view at home on DVD.

I am so glad I have been able to make these recordings and then make them available via DVD to check out and view at home.

Take advantage of this additional resource to advance your own research by viewing, or re-viewing, a program presented by one of our genealogy speakers.

Even if you attended the program yourself in person, perhaps you might have missed an important point. Here is your chance to view it again and hear the major points again. I sometimes find hearing it a second time is when you clarify something you may not have understood the first time in person. You can always rewind back to look again!